My Reno Epiphany

I was last in Reno, Nevada twenty years ago and I can’t say I had a strong opinion of the place. It was just another forgettable generic one night stop over on a long drive to somewhere else. But I found myself back there twice in the past month. First, a young friend was leaving California for his home town in Connecticut and he wanted one last western nature adventure. Then a newly retired couple from the Los Angeles area wanted to kick the tires to see if Reno might be a good relocation spot. I enjoyed exploring Reno through these very different eyes.

Reno has a downtown core that’s been beaten to death for decades by the same forces that plagued most city centers. Whole blocks of historic buildings were torn down to make way for surface parking lots, giant hermetically sealed compounds, and massive parking decks. The exterior of these bunkers were either left blank or articulated with faux storefronts with inoperable doors and windows. These insular worlds were connected by glass tubes and underground corridors. There was no desire to afflict respectable visitors with street life. In other towns – perhaps yours – these were insurance companies or the headquarters of manufacturing concerns. In Reno they were hotels and casinos.

And lo and behold the small shops died and rough trade lingered in the inky shadows. All the more reason to wall off your prestigious hotel and entertainment complex. I could be describing almost any city in the country. This happened everywhere.

Eventually new hotels were built out on the edge of town where guests would never need to be burdened with a failing downtown core. The Reno-Sparks Convention Center is a particularly poignant example of a suburban roadside tourist facility. The “decorated shed” architecture and signage were lifted directly from Learning From Las Vegas. It’s an urban form that’s best experienced at sixty miles per hour. It simply doesn’t matter what these places look like on the outside so long as there’s ample free parking and air conditioning. This is what most people really want and developers know that.

Drive out a little farther in any direction and the landscape atomizes into isolated pods. Clusters of garden apartment complexes, ribbons of single family homes, corporate light industrial parks, hilltop executive estates, and mini self storage facilities dot the terrain. Is it any different in your town? Probably not. This full spectrum from downtown to the fringe suburbs is what some urban planners call the transect. I always ask, “You mean someone planned this on purpose?” Yes. It’s all very intentional.

Reno leaders have finally figured out that a dead downtown is bad for the entire metro region. And Reno’s core, like so many other cities, is receiving attention from out-of-state developers who understand there’s pent up market demand for urban living. When private profits and public tax revenue are put on the table suddenly all sorts of things are possible. Reno is restoring its surviving traditional buildings, investing in its urban public realm, and celebrating its riverfront, public parks, and civic plazas again for the first time in decades. This isn’t simply part of a plan to cultivate more tourist traps, but to create places for locals to inhabit and enjoy.

Much of the land parallel to the main drag is being prepared for new infill development as smaller parcels are cobbled together. I don’t have any illusions of what kinds of structures these will be. Five story parking decks will occupy the center of each city block sized complex and the edges will be wrapped in apartments and condos. There will be a couple of street level storefronts here and there. “Texas doughnuts.” Meh. That’s just what works in terms financing and code compliance these days. Anything more subtle is too hard. But it will be infinitely better that vacant lots and elderly motels in this context. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Perhaps what captured the attention of city officials was the rebirth of the Midtown area immediately south of downtown. A new generation of young professionals started moving in to what had been a neglected commercial corridor. The architecture isn’t anything special, but it was small scale enough that individual family businesses could own and operate shops and breath new life in to the mini business district incrementally.

Aside from the many older existing mom and pop shops new establishments are opening up all the time. There are now great places to eat and gather for a $5 lunch or a $200 dinner. That wasn’t true a few years back.

The driver of economic change in Midtown is the existence of modest starter homes near urban amenities that have been rediscovered. There’s strong market demand for smaller homes with a patch of garden in tolerably walkable neighborhoods near a Main Street. The architects have already arrived with their Dwell Magazine aesthetic. I first began to understand this dynamic in Portland, Oregon some years ago. Halfway between the urban core and the fringe sprawl is a particular sweet spot for a lot of people.

Out past Midtown is Dead Mall Land. Here again developers and city officials understand the value of taking old crap and giving it new life. The Park Lane Mall is becoming a mixed use New Urbanist lifestyle center. Again, these will be big boxy Texas doughnuts with as much structured parking as human habitat. Do I want to find my “creative side” on an old parking lot on the side of an eight lane suburban arterial? Shrug. But it’s better than a dead mall…

Off in another direction there’s an older suburban subdivision where I discovered the crunchy hippy quarter. If you’re the type who wants a half acre off grid urban homestead that’s within bicycle distance of the university and downtown – Reno’s got it. This family paid $40,000 cash for their place a few years ago and they love their self selecting population of live-and-let-live neighbors.

So here’s my Reno epiphany. Almost every place in America has the same basic qualities. If you’re in Rockford, Illinois or Columbus, Georgia or Denton, Texas or Missoula, Montana the same buffet of potential options are on offer – give or take a few regional variations. There’s a medical center, a half assed downtown, some kind of college, an interstate to a bigger city not too far away, and maybe a second or third tier airport. The future of America is all about salvaging what we already have piecemeal over the next century.

My young friend is back in the suburbs of Hartford, Connecticut now. It’s not that different from Reno. My retired friends are back home in a remote suburb of Los Angeles where they will be staying for the duration. Their town is nearly identical to Reno, minus the casinos. This is where almost everyone lives: the good enough landscape of moderate means. It may not be Paris, but it gets the job done. We need to stop pretending there’s some perfect place out there and get comfortable with where we are. Your town isn’t a dress rehearsal. This is it folks.

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Johnny

I'm an amateur architecture buff with a passionate interest in where and how we all live and occupy the landscape, from small rural towns to skyscrapers and everything in between. I travel often, conduct interviews with people of interest, and gather photos and video of places worth talking about. The good, the bad, and the ugly - it's all fascinating to me.
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32 thoughts on “My Reno Epiphany”

Photos staged to maximize pavement saturation? Nope, that’s what it really looks like there (and the other similar places ’round the country). A not-so-small detail of them all, and one of the most difficult impediments to implementing livability anywhere (if livability equates to walkability, then Reno is largely screwed). I know this is a major theme of your writings – I think it cannot be emphasized enough. Some of those paved corridors are wide enough that you could squeeze an entire block smack down the center.

Reno’s ‘original’ boom was silver, and much of that wealth ended up in San Francisco banks. Now San Franciscans bring silver to Reno and drop it in the machines (but not nearly the same rate of return)…

Just discovered your site and am reading my way through the archives. I’ve been an architect for almost 40 years, and I can’t remember coming across an essayist who’s observations so closely reflect my own. I’ve always been a big Robert Venturi fan, and embraced the idea that “main street is almost alright”, but most of the new built environment in America is so mundane and unimaginative–so Reno-ish–that I’m concentrating on work that makes small adjustments with less political backlash. We’ll make the best of it. Thanks and keep up the good work.

This is a great post. Your description and photos of Reno look (un)surprisingly like Niagara Falls, ONT, CA. It’s all nice and shiny(ish) in the immediate area of the tourist hotels, restaurants and traps, but you see the erosion of the pre-tourist destination City that occurred and continues to occur.

Came over from a link someone posted on Naked Capitalism. You have a nice post. One thing I question is the extent to which Middle American (or maybe “Standard American”) midsize cities like Reno were left behind, not because they offered no opportunities, but because the elitist coastal mindset of the credit-binging financial elites blinded them to those opportunities? What most of the midsize cities have in common is that they haven’t suffered the real estate and cost of living inflation of the “hip” locations. Are the trendy locations really that much better, geographically? Or was it just the same groupthink, self-brainwashing, closed-minded prejudiced blue-pill perspective that has taken over so much of the culture?

The sad downtown, the sad dead mall, and the anonymous suburban sprawl on the edge of town are all absolutely normal in every part of the country I visit. That was the point of this post.

Reno is a huge beneficiary of its proximity to California. The more stressed the California landscape becomes the better Reno looks. Nevada taxes are lower, regulations are a bit lighter, property is less expensive, etc. so Reno receives a steady inflow of new residents and businesses from the Golden State. Reno is pressed up against the California border so there’s ready access to the enormous market on the coast. It’s been doing pretty well economically for a small third tier city in the desert. Property values are steadily rising, unemployment isn’t bad, and new construction is evident everywhere. The money, technical expertise, and political will to reinvent the declining properties in Reno is coming from California, not from Reno itself.

There are always elites. Mr. Procter. Mr. Gamble. Mr. Kroger. Mr. Ford. Mr. Carnegie, Mr. Rockefeller… All elites. Different locations, different centuries, different industries. But elites just the same. Income inequality and influence over government policy was every bit as bad back then as it is now with the same economic distortions. I’ve spent plenty of time all over the country (as this blog chronicles) and there are lesser elites in every town in the nation. They own whatever is worth owning in each part of the country and dominate the local political process. You think Perdue or Tyson aren’t massive elites in the rural counties they set up their processing plants?

I remember the political arguments back in the 1980s and 1990s when the voting public all across the country demanded the end of labor unions, more open markets with fewer government obstacles for free enterprise, greater international trade, and the liberalization of financial markets. The theory was that hard working, honest, smart Americans would be unshackled from onerous constraints. We’re currently living with the results of those policies. Guess what? It worked. Lots of people got really rich by innovating and creating new technologies and whole new industries. They’re called “coastal elites” by all the folks who were made redundant and unemployed along the way.

We’re in a financial bubble and it’s going to pop. The pendulum will swing back toward tighter borders, more government control (most likely a conservative version, not a leftie liberal model) and a redistribution of opportunity (if not wealth itself) that will restructure society. No one can say what that will look like, but WWII offers a plausible example.

I’ve been to Reno more than a dozen times, in all four seasons, primarily for business. I’ve also been there for New Year’s “fun”. For that trip, we took the train from Martinez. The landscape, clad in its winter finery, was breathtaking. The destination? Kind of a letdown after the beautiful journey. We visited the Museum of Art, which was…nice.

I know Reno’s super affordable, at least from a Bay Area perspective. However, there’s something about the air quality that gets to me. The earth in the surrounding area is has a powdery fine quality. It kicks up into the atmosphere in a variety of ways, and for whatever reason irritates my lungs and sinuses. I’m not a geologist or a scientist, nor do I have a challenged respiratory system or trouble with altitude. I don’t know why it happens, it just does. Reno is definitely not on my list. However, I love the way you portrayed it, in words and in pictures.

Years ago Atlantic City had the same bright idea. Bring in big Gambling, fill the city coffers
and revitalize downtown with increasing property values. Of course more than 30 years later
it went into a steep decline. After visiting Biloxi, MISS I too see the resurgence of big casinos
along the beach after being destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Same reasons! Bringing
taxes, jobs, and revitalizing downtown but mostly from FEMA funding

I’ve been through Reno a number of times over the years, and as I’m not a casino type type of guy it never held much appeal for me. However, some years back I spent a few days there in discussions with a firm we were in negotiations to acquire. The deal fell through, but it was in SW Reno suburbs, and you know, it was quite nice there. The young people in the company were largely pleased with living there – the relatively low cost of living, no state income tax, and the very close proximity to Tahoe and the Sierras, not to mention Pyramid Lake and the more remote Black Rock Desert and Sheldon Wildlife Refuge (both worth a visit outside of Burning Man periods and are certainly getting off the beaten track). Reno actually offers something well beyond “good enough” if you stay away from the tawdry areas.

“And lo and behold the small shops died and rough trade lingered in the inky shadows.”

I found your Reno post rather depressing since I had driven through there a number of times over the years. I live just outside Lacey WA (15 minutes from the I-5 and ‘downtown’ such as it is, mostly strip stuff, but most of what I need is within 10 miles from me (food co-op, medical etc). Have you ever been to our tri-city place (Tumwater,Olympia, Lacey) area. If so, whaddya think? I rather like it and they have an awesome old time music vibe here, and people have moved here for that, from the east, and canada and other places.

I’ve never been to Tumwater, Washington before, but I’ll keep it in mind the next time I’m in the area.

What I see all over the country are towns that are 99% identical. For example, I spent a big chunk of my growing up years in Toms River, New Jersey. Get on Google and “drive” around Fischer Blvd. It looks an awful lot like Capitol Blvd. in Tumwater.

Some people may look at photos from Reno (or any other town) and get depressed. “My town is better.” That’s because you live there and have become numb to the place. I’m sure I could find parallel images if I spent a few hours in Tumwater – and I know I could in Toms River.

My original hometown (Fort Wayne, Indiana) can actually be worse: eight lane stroads, immense factories that have been abandoned for 40 years, awful metal box standalone commercial buildings with enormous signs. But it has lovely older pre-war neighborhoods when they knew a thing about housing “style” and a downtown that is trying really, really hard to recover from decades of bad decisions and economics.

“Halfway between the urban core and the fringe sprawl is a particular sweet spot for a lot of people.Halfway between the urban core and the fringe sprawl is a particular sweet spot for a lot of people.”
Just curious if you’ve ever visited Jacksonville, FL? (where I grew up) I’ve been looking at properties in those “sweet spots” just outside of downtown (Springfield, Riverside, Murray Hill) and although I say they’re always 20 years behind, it seems like the officials, developers, planners, etc. are really at least making an effort as of late.
If you ever visit, I’d love to get your perspective on this often overlooked, underdog city (which is the largest in land area in the continental US).

First, this is a terrible time to buy real estate unless you can do so with minimal debt. Squirrel away your cash and wait until after the next big market correction. It’s coming. I’ve never been to Jacksonville, but if I’m ever in town I’ll look you up. If you’re ever in San Francisco let me know.

Whether it’s a bad idea to buy real estate depends on where you are in the country. In most places the rent vs. own comparison indicates it’s fine to buy, if you meet the general criteria for buying (can afford it, expect to stay, etc.). The main exception, and it is important, is that in most of the successful metro areas it’s not fine, and often a very bad idea. That includes NYC, DC, South Florida and every single metropolitan area on the West Coast, as well as a couple more I have forgotten. I saw a good chart on this recently but forgot to save the link.

We’re generally in agreement with the “Your mileage may vary” asterisk about home ownership. But the rent vs. buy calculus has more moving parts than that.

Even if you live in a low cost region and plan to stay there for a long time there are other really good reasons to hold off on a purchase right now.

If you’re juggling student loans, car payments, and think of your credit cards as your raining day fund… you might not want to take on more debt right now. Renting gives you the option of relocating toward new opportunities if the economy shifts. You might not be able to pivot if you can’t sell a house – even an affordable one – if there are no buyers.

Notice I emphasized the debt level, not the cost of the house per se. A $500,000 house might not be a problem if you pay cash and have savings to keep up with taxes and maintenance. Meanwhile, a $50,000 house with a modest mortgage could be a disaster if you lose your job in the next recession.

Don’t forget, even cheap houses in Cleveland and Cincinnati were foreclosed upon in the 2008 market correction.

In the industrial Midwest (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin) it was ESPECIALLY the $50-100K homes that were foreclosed upon 2007-10, given to the bank by the nominal owner through deed in lieu of foreclosure, and/or allowed by the banks to go to the county for taxes. Either landlords lost tenants and couldn’t make payments, or sub-prime borrowers living on the edge fell off due to job loss, medical bills, divorce, etc.

Each of those happened to more than one immediately neighboring house where I used to own, and the resulting short sales depressed market values 35-40%. Fortunately, I did not need to sell.

Reno is America? Interesting take. Personally I find Reno to be one of the most depressing cities in the Union. Something about the desert basin geography gives me cabin fever.

The midtown “sweet spot” of tolerably walkable yet affordable older suburbs near downtowns… I’m bullish on that too. While quality urban cores are in short supply, there’s quite a bit of 40s/50s crap all around the country. And importantly, it’s still plentiful in places like Denver and Dallas where there’s actually jobs.

Those of us of a certain age grew up (and have grown into late middle age) with the endlessly-replayed wisdom of the Stones in our heads: “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes, you get what you need.”

Hi Johnny I don’t have a way of logging into WordPress……you might be interested in my comment which requires a password, Very well written. Having formerly lived in Reno, I was unsatisfied with the lack of interest of the locals in Environmental issues, despite their surroundings in natural beauty. Also, I didn’t like it that many areas on Virginia Street attract drug addicted tatooed hipsters, not educated yuppies. The yuppies and college grads, interested in intellectual pursuits and the environment, along with the region’s large LDS community (12 percent) still prefer living and socializing in the master planned communities that are around the crime ridden downtown and Virginia street. Reno isn’t Boulder, Seattle, Ft. Collins, Carlsbad (CA), or Denver just yet; I would give them 10 years and they do have a good city council with plans to do so.

Now I’m curious what happened with the attempt to save traditional Charleston block styles from Texas Donuts in that link for Texas Donuts.

Reno is different from many smaller American cities in that its “industry” (casinos and vacationing in nearby natural attractions) is doing fairly well so it has more to work with financially and commercially than many. I don’t see any of these half-hearted revival attempts when I visit my parents’ home in Alabama. The dead mall has been dead twenty years, and dead it stays. Downtown still has many abandoned buildings, which smells like zoning problems to me although I haven’t researched it.

At one time Reno’s primary industry was tourism and casino gambling. Now, every one horse town in America has a casino. The market is saturated. Reno’s real engine of economic growth these days is “not being California” while having a municipal border pressed hard up against the Golden State. Retirees, logistics and distribution centers, construction, tax havens of every kind… Tesla built its Gigafactory there with relentless subsidies.

The “Texas doughnut” at least has the virtue of putting the retail right out on the street and the cars in back. I wish they had made the minimalls in LA do that. Actually, before World War II, Wilshire Boulevard pioneered a model of having the department store right on the sidewalk and the auto entrance in back. Wish we’d stuck to that.

Howard, A million years ago I lived in a 1920s building called the Los Altos on the corner of Wiltshire and Bronson – long before the neighborhood became K-town. The Wiltern Theater (corner of Wiltshire and Western) is an excellent example of a 1930s theater, office tower, and commercial strip center that had no parking at all back in the days when even fashionable angelinos walked and rode the streetcars. Today there’s a multi-level parking deck behind it that’s larger (and I’m sure cost more to build) than the theater complex itself. I’m not complaining. People need a place to park. But I can imagine a time a century from now when things are different. Not 1920s again. But not 1983 or 2018 either.

One of your more gentle and elegiac posts. Your photos of one story buildings, blank walled buildings, vast parking lots and the new hipster housing types shows the ferment going on in Reno. It’s not all bad and it’s not all good and somehow we have to make do with the average and mediocre hand government and society dreamt up. There is a feeling of Alaska in this essay, and open spaces and running river with water does not conjure up Southern Nevada. And that’s a good thing.

Living in the Vancouver BC area reading about a $40,000 house hit hard! I’m fortunate enough to have bought a house quite some time ago but it’s a nightmare here for those who weren’t as lucky. My childhood house was about $30,000 new in 1974, sold for $275K in 2004 and would now go for about one million! There’s a lot I liked about the Reno in your article. I especially liked the renovated buildings as I see depressingly little of that here. Mostly it’s just bulldoze and replace with something generically modern and expensive. Thanks for the link to the Texas Donut and the proposed alternative too – very interesting.